Southern Baptists and the Tea Party Crowd
Past SBC Presidents had active relationships with Ed McAteer of the Religious Roundtable crowd. Charles Stanley was chummy with Jesse Helms, even though Helms was legislator in another state. Mega Baptist churches like Ronnie Floyd's, are on the record for violating election laws. Second Baptist in Houston was taken to court over such. There are smaller churches that are engaged in the same activity. Rob Boston recently penned an article in Church and State about the Vice President of the SBC wanting churches to violate 501c3 tax codes and endorse candidates. You can guess which candidates will get the anointing. Kiss-and-tell one time Fundamentalist, Joel Gregory, wrote a book about his short stay as co-pastor of FBC Dallas. The current pastor of the church has had a recent history of public controversies regarding church and politics. He went on record endorsing a Mormon even though he believed Mormons are a cult. (Current President of Southern Seminary this week is speaking at Brigham Young University. ) It appears that search committees seeking pastors for these large Mega Baptist churches most certainly have an unwritten code to seek only pastors sympathetic with Tea Party ideology.
First Baptist Dallas was the church that sent out the famous anti-JFK sermon to every church in the state. Gregory spoke about the political goings on at First Baptist Dallas while he was there. He noted, "To say that First Baptist had a high identity with the Republican Party is to say that fish have a high identity with the ocean."
Southern Baptists and the Tea Party Crowd | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
Southern Baptists and the Tea Party Crowd | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
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